Saving Ace
by ladeste
Summary: Ace survives his execution thanks to Luffy and his sister, Rachel. Just a snap shot of what happens after. Oneshot. OC.


Warning: Possible Mary-sue (sorry), AU, some swearing

* * *

His hands ran along the rail of the _Moby Dick_.

This was all so surreal.

Pop's...almost everyone...they were okay.

It just felt like a dream to Ace.

There was no way that they had just taken on the government, and whilst maybe had not 'won', they had managed to escape with minimal casualties.

But they had.

There was a party going on at the other end of the boat with the crew, the Whitebeard allies and the Red-Haired pirates that he was supposedly 'guest of honour' for, _whatever_.

He couldn't really enjoy it.

Luffy.

Rachel.

His idiot brother and sister.

The panic that washed over him when he saw the pair standing in front of Whitebeard in the middle of the war was immense.

At first he though a marine had managed to sneak up behind Luffy as she'd come up behind him, still dressed in her Marine get-up, with her fist raised.

At that the point his panic had lessened whilst increasing two fold.

It had turned out she had her fist raised for their stupid not-so-secrete-secrete-handshake. That had been a mistake on his own part for ever suggesting it back when they were kids...

Most others were really confused at this point.

A marine and a pirate?

The marines had been more surprised though.

First Jinbei, now an actual marine.

Luffy had stopped shouting so Ace couldn't hear what they were talking about but it was probably Rachel's state of dress as she made quick work of her marine cloak shrugging it off and throwing her hat to the ground.

He highly doubted the thought that they could be discussing anything even close to a plan.

They were _his_ siblings after all and D.'s did little in the way of organised fighting. It was more like, rush in, kick butt, rush out and move on.

Garp who had similarly been panicking about Luffy's arrival was now pulling his hair out as he saw his third and only 'successfully trained' grandchild jump ship.

"Garp..." was the growl that had come from Sengoku, which had sparked his grandfather in trying to do something.

"RACHEL! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Admiring her blade she had looked up to meet Garp's gaze directly.

"PUTTING FAMILY FIRST!"

Ace was violently jerked from his memory as a fist connected to the back of his head.

"Hey what was that-"

Halfway through turning around a small body latched itself in his arms.

"I hate you." Came the muffled voice from his chest.

The masses of red hair had been a dead giveaway as there was no way Shanks would have latched onto him...if he did that would have been highly awkward...

"Ray! You're okay! When did you get here?"

Ace wound his arms around her to return her hug.

She didn't reply.

"Ray?"

Her petite body started shaking in his arms as he felt the splashes of tears on his skin.

Ace's eyes widened, Rachel crying, that didn't happen, not ever.

Squeezing her tighter into his chest, Ace bent down to offer hushed reassurances.

"It's okay Ray-ray, I'm safe, Luffy's safe, everyone's okay, please don't be upset."

"You could have died" was the sniffled response.

"I could of, but I didn't, because I have the best, most caring family. Not to mention a kick-arse little brother and sister."

_Not to mention Red-Haired turned up at the right time._

Whilst the shaking had almost completely stopped, the hot splashes of tears seemed to be getting worse.

"Ray, don't think about the 'what ifs', they don't matter and they **are not** real. Please stop crying, for me? Come on Ray-ray, this isn't any way for a 'D' to behave."

"Don't care"

Ace sighed.

_Maybe..._

"Is there anything I can get you to make it up to you?"

Rachel pulled back so that she could look at her brother in the eyes.

Tilting her head she stayed silent not completely sure what he thought he could get her that would make up for him almost dying.

"Did you need anything replaced that you lost?" Ace clarified.

"You mean my stuff that I left at HQ?"

She wiped the remanets of her tears away with the back of her hand, wishing that she still her cloak to do it with.

"Yeah"

She paused, thinking of everything that had been left behind.

All of her clothes, jewellery, photos –not that they could ever be replaced, unless Dadan still had a second copy back home-, everything, but was there anything that really needed replacing?

"Well...I did lose my entire nail polish collection."

She had to be shitting him.

She'd just lost all of her possession, save for what she was wearing, which was admittedly, way too little for his liking, and she was concerned about her nail polish collection?

_Oh well_.

If she wants nail polishes he was probably getting off easy in comparison to any numerous things she could have wanted.

"Mkay I can fix that, how many did you have in your collection?"

"366."

"What?!"

Ace felt his mouth fall open in his shock but he was powerless to do anything about it.

He would have thought she was joking if she hadn't looked so deadly serious.

Rachel's lips always quirked when she was joking, but it was nowhere in sight, revealing the, in Ace's case, unfortunate truth.

"366?"

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

Rachel snuffled again, and swiped at the tears for a second time.

"How could you possible need 366 nail polishes? Are there even that many colours?!"

"I wear a different colour every day of the year. I even had a special one which I only got to use during leap years. I've been wearing this colour," Thrusting her hands in front of his eyes so he'd hopefully get the picture, "for two days Ace. TWO!"

Throwing his arm to his head he leant back dramatically offering a sarcastic remark in response.

"Oh no! What in heaven's will you do?"

Giving him her best 'I am not amused look' she crossed her across her chest.

_Well, at least she isn't crying anymore._

"I want 366 new nail polishes in the colours of my choice and you ARE going to pay for them."

Studying her face closely Ace could still see the red rims that laced her eyes, which in a sense were his fault.

Inhale.

Exhale.

"Okay Ray-ray if that's what you want we'll hit the shops when we get to the next couple of ports."

"Not quite. I'm leaving with Luffy tomorrow."

Pulling a list out of her back pocket she smiled like only a D. Could as she shoved it into his hands.

"These are the exact colours I use to have and I don't want anything different. You can check them off the list and send them to me as you find them."

Kissing him on the cheek gently, she grinned again as she skipped down the _Moby Dick_ to where Luffy was sitting talking animatedly with Jinbei.

"You totally just got had."

"Shut up Marco."

Marco chuckled as he moved out of the shadows and took a swig from his cup before passing it to Ace.

Tucking the list in his pocket, he accepted the drink gratefully chugging half of it down before Marco had a chance to wrestle it back off him.

"Yoi! Now I'm gonna need another drink."

Huffing jokingly Marco slapped Ace on the back before heading the same direction as Rachel had gone only moments before.

Gazing out to the ocean once more, Ace smiled, for the first time in his existence being alive felt right. He wasn't a monster but even if he was it didn't matter. Pops was the only father he'd ever need and in the eyes of his brothers and sister Pops was the only father he had.

Finishing off the rest of the drink Marco had left behind, Ace made his way down to the rest of his family.

After all, what's a party without the guest of honour?


End file.
